1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automated farming system. More particularly, the present invention relates to an irrigation system which can be controlled from a remote location through radio transmissions.
2. Prior State of the Art
In today's world of agriculture, farms are typically large. In order for the farmer to be able to control all farming operations, he or she must travel to each site in order to manually operate the various pieces of equipment. Often, time is wasted travelling from one place to another. For example, on a farm with several hundreds or thousands of acres, it may take hours for the farmer to travel to each area in order to determine whether enough water is being evenly distributed, whether the soil is being appropriately nourished, whether the irrigation systems are working properly, whether all the pumps have been turned on, etc. Even if the job is split between several people, many man hours are necessarily consumed.
Irrigation of the fields is one area much time and effort is expended in order to operate the various irrigation equipment. For example, a wheel line is commonly used to irrigate large fields. The wheel line is moved through the fields by a wheel mover system. The mover itself is mounted on a tube which also serves as a frame. On either end of the tube is an axle having wheels attached thereto. The unit propels itself by use of hydraulic pumps, gears, and valves.
Typically, a pumping station distributes water through a main line. Wheel lines are connected to the main line at one end and extend various distances away from the main line. When a new irrigation set is to be irrigated, the wheel lines are disconnected from the main line, rotated throughout the field, and then re-connected to the main line at the new location. Unfortunately, this process is laborious and time consuming. In order to be able to move the wheel lines to new areas, the wheel line must be turned off and disconnected from the main line. An operator must then walk from the main line to the center where the mover is located in order to move the wheel line to a new position in the field. The operator must then walk back to the main line, re-connect and pressurize the wheel line. Much time is consumed by the operator in walking back and forth. Further, the crop cover and soil conditions of the area may make walking difficult and inconvenient.
A further problem with the irrigation systems used today is the inability to quickly restart all the water pumps at once. For example, power outages resulting from storms often cause the water pumps to be accidentally or automatically turned off. If these pumps are not restarted within a certain time period, the water pressure in the system drops, thus making it difficult to repressurize the system. Therefore, after a storm or power outage, someone must quickly drive to each pump station in order to restart the pumps before an excessive drop in pressure can occur.